Executive Summary - GFDRR

Box 2. The historical impact of disasters in Colombia
Cumulatively, over the past forty years, disasters in Colombia have caused losses amounting to US$7.1 billion 8 , that is, an average
annual loss of US$177 million. Between 1970 and 2011, the country has registered more than 28,000 disaster events, of which about 60% were
reported from the 1990s on. Additionally, during 2010 and 2011, in just 15 months an equivalent figure amounted to one quarter of the registries and
fatalities in the previous decade. There is a noticeable increase in the disaster event occurrence, increasing from 5,657 registered between 1970 and
1979, to 9,270 registered between 2000 and 2009, which is related not only to the availability and quality of the information sources, but mainly to the
increase of the population and the property exposed.
Figure 2. Disasters and losses registered per decade
1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2011
5,657 5,123 6,465 9,270 2,187
4,025 28,316 3,957 2,180 519
1,710.541 4,727.790 9,204.412 9,284.073 2,823.885
23,060 29,317 88,956 41,689 7,403
25,584 15,873 191,828 470,987 358,378
Disasters Deaths Victims /Affected Destroyed Houses Affected Houses
Source: The authors’ figure from information provided by OSSO-EAFIT Corporation (2011).
Although geological events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions cause great losses in a concentrated territory and elapse
in a relatively short time, the hydrometeorological phenomena cause high-frequency impacts that over time mean even higher
cumulative losses. In the period 1970-2011, major disasters have caused housing losses of approximately US$2 billion 9 , while intermediate and small
disasters reported losses in the same category of approximately US$5 billion, totaling 2.5 times more than the previous events (OSSO Corporation 2011).
8 Corresponds to housing economic losses (millions of dollars, 2010), due
to geologic and hydrometeorological phenomena between 1970 and
2010 (OSSO Corporation 2011).
9 Losses in the housing sector for seven major disasters: Popayan Earthquake,
1983; Volcano Eruption of Nevado del Ruiz, 1985; Atrato Medio Earthquake,
1992; Páez Earthquake, 1994; El Niño phenomenon, 1997-1998; Coffee
Growing Region Earthquake, 1999; La Niña phenomenon, 2010-2011.
Source: OSSO Corporation (2011) based on Cardona et al. (2004); CAF
(2000); ECLAC (1999); ECLAC (2011).
16 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. ANALYSIS OF DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT IN COLOMBIA: A contribution TO the creation of public policies